Children's herb garden wins online vote in Local Budget scheme - Residents urged to back their favourite local projects

The third round of public voting for the community schemes people think should benefit from a budget boost has resulted in a win for a local children's garden.

The Woodlands Park Village Children's Centre herb and vegetable garden was a clear favourite, attracting 37% of the September online vote in the council's Local Budget neighbourhood participatory budgeting scheme - well ahead of all the other projects put forward in September.

The herb and vegetable garden will now receive £2,000, agreed by the cabinet participatory budgeting sub committee. It will be used to help children and families attending the centre to enjoy the great outdoors as well as benefiting from the indoor activities programme.

This takes to six the number of local action projects voted for by borough residents since the neighbourhood local budget scheme was launched in July - and the message is going out to local organisations to keep coming forward with projects to add to the voting list. Importantly, residents are also being reminded to keep voting at www.rbwm.gov.uk

Cllr David Burbage, council leader and sub committee chairman, said: "There are now more than 20 excellent local projects on the list and we want to hear from even more organisations keen to bid for up to £2,000 of helpful funding to take forward schemes in their local areas.

"We also remind residents that it is their votes that decide which organisations will receive funding so they really do need to get online and back the schemes they want to see benefitting from welcome extra cash."

Serena O'Gorman, children's centre co-ordinator, and Clare Wood, centre support worker, said: "We would like to say how delighted we are that we have been successful in winning this £2,000 funding for our community vegetable and herb garden.

"It is such a lovely community project, bringing all ages of the community together to enjoy planting, growing and harvesting home grown produce. We are all very excited and extend a big thank you to everyone who voted for us and for having had the opportunity to apply. Funding like this is invaluable in securing community projects."

How it works
The neighbourhood budget scheme is part of this year's £300,000 participatory budgeting (PB) programme and invites residents to vote for schemes they want to see go ahead in their local areas.

Parish councils, community groups, charities and individual residents bid for up to £2,000 of Royal Borough funding to boost local action in streets and communities - and then local people vote online for their favourites.

A total of £50,000 of capital funding has been made available:
• £40,000 for bids of up to £2,000 (a total of £12,000 has now been awarded as a result of the first three rounds of voting)
• £10,000 to provide additional funding to the projects where the organisers can demonstrate that they have worked hard to attract matched funding or help.

At the end of each round of voting the votes for all the unsuccessful bids are cleared so all the next round of bids start from zero. That's why it is important for the organisations bidding for cash to get their supporters to keep voting each time.

To view the projects in the running for residents' votes in October/November go to the home page of the Royal Borough website at www.rbwm.gov.uk and click on Your Local Budget to find the list of projects and cast your vote. The closing date is 5pm on Tuesday 6 December.

The results will be considered by the sub committee on Thursday 8 December.

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